When you find the first few types of linen textiles, you are most likely not sure if you know the linen before you take them home. Need to learn some knowledge to understand the characteristics of flax.
This is a short tutorial to help you complete your first treasure hunt for linen textiles.

Flax has a body
When you touch the woven imitation linen fabric and crush it with your hands and then let go, the real linen will bounce back. It will wrinkle and rebound. The folds of the manual crease will remain round rather than flattened.
Cotton will squash due to lack of body. The rayon will spring back to its original shape and curl.
Linen feels cold and may get damp
Linen will actively absorb moisture in the air, so when you touch the linen fabric, it will feel cool. Cotton also absorbs moisture, but in a high-humidity environment, cotton may feel moist rather than cool.
Polyester fibers and other petroleum-based fibers do not easily absorb moisture and feel the same temperature as the surrounding air.

Rough linen texture
Even if your linen textiles have a smooth surface and shiny jacquard weave, they will have shorter ***-like fibers in the weaving. This is the hallmark of real linen textiles. These characteristic fibers are called “lint”.

Polyester tablecloths imitating linen usually add small features. On older linen tablecloths, the nodules are less noticeable due to the finer weaving, but if the textile is placed in the daytime, thicker threads will be seen in the uniform, fine threads.

Please note that modern polyester tablecloths imitate this aspect of linen, but have a permanent compression feeling and will not feel cold to the touch. Polyester lacks the body and weight of real linen.

Linen textiles are usually white or white with border stripes
Linen is resistant to dyeing, so most traditional linen textiles are white or off-white. Sometimes, you will find a *** with colored stripes, but rarely will you find a solid color.

Beware of the imitation of cotton or polyester again. Although linen will become soft after repeated washing, it will still retain its weight and weight, while cotton and polyester fibers will lose their weight and weight due to repeated washing, because this “feel” will be combined with the sizing agent and polymer. It is added to the fabric and then washed off.

Flax is usually woven with jacquard fabric
Jacquard weave puts the photo in the weave of linen, opposite to the other side of the textile. Flax is particularly attractive in jacquard weaving technology, because the luster of the flax fibers in the satin weave part of the pattern makes the pattern stand out. Therefore, although jacquard weaving is more expensive to do, it requires more shafts than traditional weaving and is usually used for linen fabrics.

Usually, cotton tablecloths mimic this aspect of linen, but they lack the texture of linen. Cotton tablecloths woven from jacquard are often dyed in many colors. Flax is rarely dyed.

Linen hardens after washing
After washing, the pectin in the flax plant is rejuvenated in the fabric, which gives the fabric stiffness and brittleness, while cotton, linen and artificial fabrics lack. This is especially evident in in-line dry textiles.

Linen resistant to ironing
Linen wrinkles easily and is difficult to iron. It needs the heat with the highest iron condensability and heat to smooth the iron. Traditionally, linen is crushed with a special press that crushes the cold fabric on a heavy pressure roller to make it smooth and crisp.

Cold rolled linen has an excellent hand feel and cannot be imitated by steam ironing.

Burn test
If you are still unsure whether your textiles are made of linen, you can perform a burn test. In a safe place, such as a kitchen sink, put a few threads of the textile hem in a metal can. Using a candle, touch the flame to the textile. Flax will burn a yellow flame. Smells like grass burn. It will leave white ash. The polyester will melt into a piece of plastic.